


So I’m going to be the best camper, and everyone will love me.

by faraandmera



Series: Camp Camp Powers AU [1]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Gen, actually lycans not werewolves but you know whatever, and spirits and werewolves and stuff, basically lots of non human people, character death is implied (bc jasper) but not directly adressed, mostly just David reminiscing, there isn't really any pairing here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 15:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11603475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faraandmera/pseuds/faraandmera
Summary: David finds himself thinking about his own time as a camper. About the summers he spent here. About one summer in particular. If he could still like- love- this place after that summer, why was nobody else able to?





	So I’m going to be the best camper, and everyone will love me.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr Version: http://faronisisioni.tumblr.com/post/163389647448/
> 
> I know david was probably making /most/ of his story up but like.... let me have this. Also I agree with the idea that if he really did act like that, he was censoring himself, and in real life was swearing.

David can’t help the sigh that escapes him, once he’s alone. He kept up his energy around the kids, and Gwen, even while trying to reprimand Max for freezing over the lake, but he’s rather exhausted. There’s a bit of pride he feels at the realization that Max’s control over his ability is improving, but that’s buried under worry that Max immediately over-did it, and that David had to heal him, so he wouldn’t get sick.

Max’s improving temperature control aside, David is disappointed at the cancellation of the days activity. Though the kids seem fine with the chance to walk over the frozen lake, he thinks the original activity was much more exciting.

While David understands the want not to be here, he wishes he could convince Max that the camp is as great as David thinks it is now. It hadn’t taken  _nearly_ this long for him to come around, despite what he told Max, Nikki, and Neil. It made the story- of his first earned badge- more exciting, and left out the bad that it resulted in, to pretend it had been the cause of his altitude change.

It wasn’t as if he thought Max was wrong, either. David was  _well_ aware the world was changing- that the non-human population was growing, and would eventually overtake the human one- and leaving behind the need for a camp like Camp Campbell. Yet, he thought there was still something worthwhile here. Maybe, David thinks, it’s because he’d only ever dismissed the place because he could blend in with human society, and now there was no need to hide at all, under most circumstances.

David finds himself sitting on his bunk. It creaks under him, old and failing. Vaguely he remembers sitting here as a child, crying into the side of one of his counselors. It was Darla, he thinks. He runs his hands over the cover of the photo album in his hands, frowning. It contains pictures from his time at camp, at least one from even back before he cared for the place. David flips it open, idly turning through the pages. He stops at the picture from when he got his first badge.

Campbell himself stands, two bears dead at his feet, grinning. David is to his side, wide-eyed and grinning. David has to force himself to look to the right of the photo. Jasper stands there, smiling- though there’s an obvious sort of disappointment in his eyes- and  _seemingly_ fine.

David closes the album.

If he could still like-  _love_ \- this place after that summer, why was nobody else able to? The campers don’t care, Max especially. He could argue that Nikki seems to like it here, but one child out of the dozen here, isn’t saying much. Gwen is only here because she’s being paid, and couldn’t find another job. Cameron Campbell is never around. The founder of this place, who once talked about how much he thought the mutant and spirits communities needed a place to be themselves, doesn’t even care about it anymore. Sure, he was human, but David had always thought he truly cared about it, as well.

 

_It’s only the third day of camp, and David is regretting not fighting harder to stay home this summer. Everyone is just… so happy. It’s annoying. The counselors are annoying. The campers, and activities, are annoying. Why was he here again? What was the point, again? His abilities were both easy to hide, and he had good control over them, so he could easily blend into normal society. He didn’t **need** a camp to hide out in. He didn’t need to be here. Not like those whose entire appearances changed because of their mutations, or spiritual origin._

_“Come on, Davey.” Jasper’s voice cuts through David’s attempts to block out their counselors voices. Rolling his eyes, David turns to Jasper. “It’s not so bad! It’s only been three days, I’m sure you’ll get used to it.”_

_“I don’t **want** to get used to it. I want to  **leave**.” David crosses his arms, and leans forward slightly, eyes narrowed. “Not all of us are in love with nature.”_

_“I just think it’s neat.” Jasper shrugs, unaffected by David’s glaring. Which would annoy David, had it not been Jasper, who was currently the only person in his immediate vicinity that David could stand._

 

_Plant identification is, quite possibly, the least exciting task they could possibly be given. Yet, here they were, identifying plants. David shifts his gaze to Jasper, who’s kneeling near some sort of pink flower. The buddy system, at least, has allowed David to do no work. He leaves that to the person who already knew plenty about flowers anyway. The perk of plant manipulation, David guesses._

_“These flowers are pretty cool, huh, Davey?” Jasper turns his head, to face David, who shrugs. “You just have to be careful of their thorns- oh.”_

_“What?”_

_“You heard what I was just saying?” Jasper raises his hand, the one furthest from David, to reveal that it’s bleeding. “I wasn’t paying attention.”_

_“God. You were literally just fu-” David sighs, cutting himself off, and shakes his head. “Here, give me your stupid hand.”_

_“What?”_

_“Give me your hand,” David repeats, glaring. Jasper does as he’s told, and David runs his thumb over the bleeding fingers. A ringing in Davids ears accompanies the small wound closing and healing over. His vision blurs, like he’s just woken up._

_“Davey! That’s so cool! You can heal?!” Jasper examines his hand, and David nods. Blinking, to clear his vision, David takes a step back._

_“Yeah. I can’t heal myself, and it takes- like- energy? So I didn’t mention it.”_

_“Wait-” Jasper turns to full face David, placing his hands on David’s shoulders. “I thought you were a shape-shifter.”_

_“I’m not.” David rolls his eyes. The ringing in his ears has stopped. “I’m a lyc- werewolf. But I’m also a mutant. Go fucking figure.”_

_Ignoring David’s language, Jasper grins. “That’s so cool!”_

_“I guess.” David shrugs. There’s a moments pause, before he turns away. As David begins walking- towards camp- and Jasper follows. “Plant powers are cool too, I guess.”_

_“Thanks, Davey!”_

 

The door opening startles David out of his memories. Gwen heaves a sigh, dropping into a chair across the room. “Those kids will be the death of me.”

“They aren’t so bad.” David’s response is immediate, he doesn’t at all consider it. A smile forms on his face, partially out of habit, as he speaks again. “They’re just excitable.”

“Dogs are  _excitable_.” Gwen sighs, again. “ _They_ are trying to cause destruction at every opportunity.”

“I’m sure they’re just-”

“ _Don’t_.”

“Fine, fine.” David holds up his hands, surrendering. They’ve been here long enough that David knows better than to argue with Gwen about this.

“What’s that?” David raises an eyebrow at Gwen’s question, before realizing her eyes are trained on the photo album.

“Oh. This is my old camp album. From when I was a camper!”

“Reminiscing?”

“Something like that.”

“Anything blackmail worthy?”

“I doubt that!”

“Disappointing.” Gwen sits up, grabbing a magazine and turning her attention to that. David gives a small laugh, before standing to put the album away. He silently wonders if she’d consider pictures of him being an angry child to be blackmail worthy, considering what he’s like now. Probably not.

 

_“Don’t you like being able to use your powers, whenever you want?” Jasper asks, over what is considered breakfast. David picks at his food, glaring at it._

_“I don’t really care.” David shrugs._

_“Aw.”_

_“I can’t, anyway. I’m pretty sure these-” David pauses, looks up at Jasper, then changes the word he was going to say- “ **squares** would freak if I shifted.”_

_“They would not. It’d be cool!”_

 

_“Mail!” Darla- the counselor watching over them today- calls. While some kids jump to their feet, rushing over, David stays at the table. When he looks up, he finds Jasper hasn’t moved either._

_“Jasper?”_

_“Huh?”_

_“Aren’t you going to get your mail?”_

_“No.” Jasper leans against the table. David briefly wonders if the tables are clean, before setting the thought aside to focus on more important things. “There wont be any.”_

_“There wont?”_

_“Nope.” Jasper shrugs, forcing a smile onto his face. David can tell it’s fake, but doesn’t know what to say._

_“I- there wont be any for me, either.”_

_“I’m sorry.”_

_“It doesn’t matter.”_

_They’re silent, for a moment. Jasper is the one to break it, which David doesn’t find too surprising. “I like camp. Home’s lonely, and I can’t use my powers there, and it’s awful. So I’m going to be the **best** camper, and everyone will love me.”_

_Realization settles in David’s chest, and he nods. “Well you’re **already** the best camper! But, hey, don’t be mad when I become the second best, and then try to take your spot!”_

_Jasper glances over, surprised, before laughing. “Good luck with that! You have to make up for your bad attitude.”_

_“My attitude is fine!” David slaps a large, forced, smile onto his face. Jasper laughs into his hand._

 

There’s shouting outside, which draws David’s attention. He rushes out of the cabin, worried one of the kids will be hurt, and finds their mascot chasing Harrison. David pauses, worriedly calling out to the boy, who just yells something unintelligible. Nikki’s laughing gives David a pretty good idea of what’s going on.

“Nikki!”

“Yes, David?” She tries to look innocent, but he isn’t fooled.

“Please tell the platypus to stop chasing Harrison. It’s not okay to sick animals on your fellow campers! You should know better than this.”

“I didn’t!” Nikki crosses her arms. David stares, unconvinced, and she sighs. “Fine, fine.”

“Thank you, Nikki. And  _please_ , apologize to Harrison.” He gets a small nod in response.

“Hey, Plats!” Nikki calls, running over to their mascot. It stops, and Nikki starts making noises that don’t make any sense to David, but he assumes are her way of communicating with it. Then she turns to Harrison, with a halfhearted apology.

“What’s it matter if someone get’s hurt?” Max’s voice startles David, and he lets out a small shriek.

“Max! I don’t want any of you to be  _hurt!_  You shouldn’t say things like that!”

“But you can heal them, anyway, can’t you? What’s it fucking matter?”

“Not if their wounds get infected! And they’d still be hurt, and in pain. Max, you don’t want anyone to be hurt, do you?” Davids question is met with an eye roll from Max, but he can see the frown on Max’s face. He’s learned, just a little, to read Max’s expression for meaning that Max wont actively give out. David is fairly sure his current expression means Max agrees with the notion of not wanting them to be hurt.

 

_“Jasper!” David stares, wide-eyed at the wounds on Jasper’s torso. They look bad. They look really bad._

_“I- I’m okay.”_

_“Here!” David moves forward, ignoring Mr. Campbell behind him, telling him he should stay back. “I’ll heal you.”_

_When he came back for his second summer in a row, this wasn’t what he expected to happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen. “Davey?”_

_“What?”_

_“You think we’ll still get that badge?”_

 

“Well, isn’t that just stupidly inconvenient. What’s the point of healing if you can’t even fucking fix infections?”

“I can deal with sickness, but if I heal a wound and it get’s infected, I might not catch it in time,” David explains, tone light. “So it’s better not to let anyone get hurt in the first place!”

“Whatever. I still think it’s stupid.”

 

_“What?” David stares up at Mr. Campbell, who sighs._

_“Jasper’s sick.”_

_“Why?”_

_“Don’t know. For now, you should just head back to your tent.”_

_“But I can-”_

_“Come along, now, Davey. I’m going to take Jasper to a doctor, you don’t need to worry about it.”_

_“Okay…”_

 

“It’s a little inconvenient,” Davids admission is quiet enough, that he’s not sure Max hears him. “ _Now_ , have you considered unfreezing the lake?”

“No fucking way.”

David sighs, shaking his head. He’s not sure what he expected. Looks like he wont be convincing Max to enjoy the camp activities today. David shakes his head. There’s always tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a little disjointed, sorry.
> 
> if you leave comments i'll cry and love you forever.
> 
> Me: I want David to be happy  
> Me, also: hey wouldn't it be cool if he was partially responsible for his friend dying.


End file.
